Congratulations are in order for Carly Pearce, who is officially being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.
After many years of hard work and over 80 performances at the Opry, it has all finally payed off and Carly will officially be able to call herself the newest member of one of the greatest institutions in country music.
It’s an honor many country artists only ever dream about.
And, who better to surprise her with the news other than the queen of country music herself, Dolly Parton. Carly was set up to think she was going to the studio to talk about her experiences at Dollywood both as a child and later as a teenager performing there, saying:
“My earliest memory of Dollywood is going when I was five years old I think. And, just going to the park for the first time I always loved Dolly as a kid so it was really awesome to just go to all the shows and see the performers and eat all the food and hear Dolly playing through the park.
Being able to perform there was the most amazing thing to be a teenager loving just the park, and loving to… nuh uh!”
That’s when Dolly walks into the room, and like any of us would, Carly goes into complete shock and proceeds to freak out seeing her childhood icon casually strolling into her interview.
As Carly panics and tries to calm herself down, Dolly starts to explain what’s really going on:
“We set this up so I could kind of walk in on you and I wanted to surprise you. First of all, I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you.
Do you know that she started singing at Dollywood when she was 16 years old? You do remember that?
And, I know that they told me that you had been on the Grand Ole Opry 80 times. How do you do that 80 times?”
To which Carly replies:
“Oh my goodness, I’m just trying to follow in your footsteps.”
Good answer, Carly. Of course, she still doesn’t know exactly why Dolly is there at this point.
“You should be a member of the Grand Ole Opry, what’s wrong with them?”
Carly jokingly agrees, and that’s when Dolly breaks the huge news to her:
“Well I came here to tell you that you are now officially a member of the Grand Ole Opry.”
That’s when Carly loses it and completely breaks down hearing that one of her lifelong dreams is being fulfilled. It’s refreshing to see artists like her get the credit and recognition they deserve, and this is all just the beginning for her.
She’s one of the best mainstream artists in all of country music right now.
I would think the moment was all the more special to Carly after the past couple years she’s been through in her personal life. She wore her heart on her sleeve and got deeply personal with an incredible EP, 29, that was released earlier this year after her divorce from Michael Ray.
There’s likely more on the way soon on the album front, and I couldn’t be more excited to see where her career goes from here.
Carly posted the entire video on Instagram, and it will give you chills to see her reaction when Dolly tells her that her Opry membership is official. I couldn’t be happier to see this happen for her:
“Dreams come true… sometimes even better than you dare to dream. I couldn’t be more happy or honored the be the newest member of the Opry”
She’ll officially be inducted on August 3rd.
“29”
